Today I received package for a book I had ordered.  No book was enclosed only a tshirt and some stuffed paper in a large box. I am in the middle of PMing  the sender and she claims she sent the book, not a t-shirt. 

While I am technically not out anything, except the book I wanted,  if she insists  the book was sent in this package, whose responsibility is to file a claim at the post office?  The package was well sealed, stamped as "media mail subject to inspection" but did not have any signs of having been opened.  Do I have to file a claim of lost item or does that fall back to the sender?

Thanks for your help.

Well it is pretty obvious that someone mixed up some packages. First thing I would do is check my Transaction Archive and make sure that the sender you PMed and the sender of the mystery package are one in the same. Perhaps the order rolled over to another member and the first member who had the order is the one who mixed up the shirt and the book.\

Does the return address match the state on this order on the En Route to Me Tab on your Main Account page?  Does the name match?

Very weird, and a good thing it wasnt opened by the PO, since it never would have passed the Media Mail inspection.

As for filling out the forn, that seems like an exercise in futility since it seems that a book was never mailed.

And now that you have peaked my curiousity, is it a nice T-shirt? Is it new?

It's a plain black t-shirt that after 2 pms, the sender swears they didn't mail.It's not even my size, wah!  It's their address, their box, they said they bought at the post office, and claimed they had the book in there. 

So they claim the book was mailed in the box I received???? More mysteries.

I found what to do in the help file. Why is it easier to find thing like that at 2:30am?

I had a friend once insist I mailed my underwear to him rather than a birthday present that I meant to send, and I SWEAR I didn't do any such thing!  I still chalk that up as one of the great mysteries of my life.  But anway, what I would do if I were you is take a picture of the shirt, including the tag, email it to them and ask if it looks familiar.  They might go, "Oh yeah, that's my husband's, I'm so dumb!"  They might not, but it's worth a shot.  Good luck.

Don't mark the book as RWP because technically you did not get the book.   When it goes lost you'll get your credit back.  Then maybe she'll fess up to still having the book or having sent it to someone else by mistake.  Like the person who was supposed to get the shirt. 

Weird things do happen in the postal system sometimes. My DH once got a roll of surgical tubing instead of something he'd ordered. It was a small mom-and-pop company and they didnt even sell anything related to this tubing. They were totally sure DH was trying to scam them. He sent pictures of the packaging and the merchandise and they swore that wasn't their box and he must have put the label on some other box to take the pictures and they weren't going to refund his money or send the thing he'd ordered. They wouldn't even entertain the notion that the labels could have been switched in transit. The box he got had the label taped securely, but there was no way for us to tell if that was done by USPS or by the original sender.

Just think, somewhere out there, is a puzzled half-naked guy calling up a T-shirt vendor and asking why in the heck they sent him a book.

Yes, and I hope he really wants to read an 800 page biology book... ;)

Thanks, I will take pictures and offer to send them her. 

I wasn't sure how to mark it but finally found it in the help section.  I will just let the system time it out.  It just didn't seem right to mark it received.

(Now I'm laughing thinking of this man half-naked reading about Biology, it's just too funny for some reason)

Maybe the half naked man is a very bored Postal employee who picks some packages to switch at random, imagining the confusion he causes. He works the late shift, lives alone and has allergies to pet dander, so is quite lonely. He thinks he should have continued his studies in Biology, instead of taking the job with the PO all those years ago. He had some left over medical tubing from when he quit school to go to work for the USPS to support his aging mother. Switching the content of packages is his only joy, since he works nights, he has no friends and often goes without sleep since he has noisy neighbors. He has considered getting a TIVO but would rather live reality than watch it on TV.

Haha you're cracking me up Cheryl. 

That is the weirdest thing, and I imagine 800-page biology books don't get posted here too often, so that's unforunate.

One clue might be the amount of postage paid on the item.  Certainly a tee shirt would cost a lot less to send than a Biology book.  If it was a small amount paid, I would guess the sender maid the error.  If it was a larger amount, sounds like the goof is by the USPS.

Well is this is the only joy someone gets, I'll guess I'll suffer. :) The box was huge and the postage was 4.22, which seemed high for the current weight. but the box is oversized, like 18x12 and at least 3 inches deep. At first I thought it was birthday gift for my husband, I would never had sent a book in that big of that box,  but maybe it was all that was available.   Maybe I can reuse it to send Christmas gifts.

I know I keep making light of this and I really do feel for you Paula, but this whole thing has my imagination running wild.

Maybe it is a big PBS joke and you were the first participant of the Big Box of T-shirt switcheroo game. I guess how it works is when the next member orders a book from you, you put another T-shirt in the box and mail it to the PBS member. Then a few days later, after answering the other member's PM denying all knowledge of the shirts in the box , mail them their real book . Even though your name and address is right there in the return address label, deny, deny, deny. And so on down the line until the box gets too full of T-shirts. Hell, you have to ability and the tools right there in your power to start a movement. Send it on to the next member, and if you do, I will send you a box for you to use to send your Christmas gifts. I may even through in a T-shirt!

Now I cracked myself up. I'm sorry Paula, really I am. But the whole thing is just too funny!

"Honey, where is my shirt? I love that shirt, where is my shirt?" "Have you seen my shirt, Honey? You know the one, the black one that you say doesnt fit me?" Have you seen my shirt? Where in the world has that shirt gotten to, I know it was here the other day" "Darn shirt!"

We could start a whole new site, swap-a-shirt.  it could be more popular than swap-a-goat.

Of course, the rules would have to state that you could not mail goats and shirts together, as I'm sure the goats would eat the shirt.

This t-shirt is brand new, tag is still on it, too bad I didn't get the receipt. 8.50 would buy a few credits.

If the store info is on the shirt you might still be able to return it but they'd only give you the current price.  So if it's gone on clearance it might not be much.

I just read this and was curious. Did you ever solve this mystery? Did you ever get this book? Wow! That's so weird.

Is swap a goat real??  I would really like to have a goat, but I don't have one to swap.

It's only real in the imagination of Richard and some of us who are wacked!!  But it's very real to US.

LMAO, but Paula so sorry about the missing Biology book.

When real life is stranger than (science) fiction. . .beam up the book Scottie!

". . .the first participant of the Big Box of T-shirt switcheroo game. . ."   that sounds like fun, I wanna play too!

T-shirt was donated to Salvation Army. Biology book never arrived. HUMPH! We homeschool and I was ordering this for me to read through and possibly use for my son. 

Since this I have ordered another biology book and waiting with crossed fingers for it to arrive safely. Ironically I had ordered another biology book  and the request timed out, so I ordered a different biology text and it was canceled by the sender within hours. Both of those books had only be listed in December.  So I think the gods of biology were out to test my patience.  We'll see what happens with the book, now the 4th differen biology book,  that is on its way.

Fortunately I have a sense of humor.

Wow, just read this. Poncer, you need to write some books. You are good. What an imagination. Speaking as a postal employee, if you use the loser postal employee story, make him first shift. Second and third shift is when everyone works in the plants (Where they sort the mail). Otherwise, good story.

This also reminds me. My son has an old biology book from high school. I think I'll go get it and post it. :)

Oh yes, always post texts.  They can be difficult to find and expensive for students, recycle those puppies!

This is the most fun I've ever had had reading a thread in the USPS Postal Regulations Forum.

ETA: for misspelling -- why don't we have a spell check here?

This will take the cake...  I once received a package from my mom- everything was it and more....  In it was a half eaten McDonalds hamburger, wrapper too- thats why I knew it was McDonalds.  This did NOT happen when my mom was packing this as she won't eat McDonalds.  The package looked untouched.  One of the great mysteries of life.....